Rutgers Program Encourages Minority Undergrads in Quest to Become Doctors

Access Med sends 52 students this year to continue education in medical and allied health fields.

Going premed is a lofty goal for any undergraduate.

But blazing a path to medical school without role models or a road map can leave many underrepresented students feeling overwhelmed and unsure whether their final destination is even attainable.

This year, a Rutgers program dedicated to leveling the playing field for those students is sending off 52 seniors and alumni to continue their education in the medical and allied health fields.

“I like to say Access Med is a diversity pipeline without any leaks,” said Kamal Khan, who has worked in the Office for Diversity and Success in the Sciences, or ODASIS, since its inception in 1986, becoming the associate director in 2004 and director in 2011. Access Med is the core undergraduate program of ODASIS, an academic support unit in the School of Arts and Sciences’ Division of Life Sciences.

Through Access Med’s academic enrichment, advising, career counseling and MCAT preparation, Rutgers has gone from graduating one African-American premed student in 1987 to readying 1,034 minority and economically disadvantaged students for careers in health and medicine between 1990 and 2013.

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